THE FIRST TRANSLATIONS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE’S DETECTIVE PROSE IN CHINA IN THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Abstract

The work of the American writer of the first half of the 19th century, Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), has been studied and studied for about two hundred years, it was so deep, in many ways innovative. It is he who is considered the ancestor of the detective genre. However, in China, the first detective work translated into Chinese was not the works of Edgar Allan Poe, but of a later writer — Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930). The first translation of the story by E. A. Poe was made in 1905 by the writer and translator Zhou Zuoren. A surge of interest in the work of Edgar Allan Poe occurred in the 20–30s of the 20th century, both individual stories and entire collections of his works are published one after another. In the 40s, the interest of readers and publishers in the works of E. A. Poe gradually decreases. One of the most popular stories were The Tell-Tale Heart, which was published in different translations, and The Gold Bug.